LAGHMAN PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

11.07.2013

LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Police in Afghanistan’s Laghman province are taking big strides in their professional development and and the protection of their country. Afghan Uniformed Police officer 2nd Lt. Omar Khan typifies these gains as he transfers the combat life saver skills he learned with Coalition Forces to his fellow policemen in the Afghan Local Police.

In a small red classroom in Laghman’s police headquarters, Soldiers from 5th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, based at Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam, have been training the AUP in a number of skills, including combat lifesaver techniques, and are proud to see their students take the lessons they learned and conduct their own classes.

“They took everything we had to teach them; they absorbed it, and now they’re running with it,” said Syracure, N.Y. native, Sgt. Bartholomew Murphy III, a medical advisor with 5th Battalion. “I’m just really impressed with them and how well their own class has turned out.”

Murphy developed the CLS training for Laghman’s police, including both the skills classes and the train-the-trainer course.

As combat lifesavers, the students are taught how to set broken bones with splints, how to stop bleeding, how to keep patients breathing correctly, and essentially how to do what they need to do to get the patient to the next appropriate level of care.

The trainer’s most important mission has been transfering skills and knowledge to their Afghan counterparts to ensure they can provide security for the people of Afghanistan. It’s not just enough to give a class or conduct some training, in order to affect lasting change, Coalition forces have to ensure the Afghans have the tools to develop sustainable training for themselves and future officers.

In order to accomplish this, the 5th Battalion’s Soldiers have to make sure their students are proficient in teaching the skills themselves and are able to teach others how to conduct the training as well.

“That’s really what we see as the next big way ahead for the police here. We want them to be fully self-sufficient. They’re taking big steps toward doing that and they’re doing very well at it,” said Capt. Joshua Page, another 5th Battalion medical advisor.

CLS skills have been a big focus for the police in Laghman because they are responsible for the citizens of Afghanistan, as well as the men to their left and right when they’re patrolling their checkpoints and in the field.

“It’s very important for the police because we are working with the local people in the community. If there are some civilian casualties then we can treat them; and if we don’t have good training then we will not be able to treat the people properly,” said Khan, the executive officer for Laghman Province’s Police Training Company.

Khan’s class included local police officers from every checkpoint in the province. The plan is for them to take what they learn back and share the skills with the other police officers in their unit.

“I’m feeling great. All of my guys who I trained got everything and everything was done properly; and when they go back to their checkpoints I know they’ll be able to treat any casualty,” said Khan.